View from the Emerald Isle: India to go in with five bowlers

Chin music versus the kings of tweak could be an ideal way to describe India’s Super Eights clash with Australia here on Friday.

In the build-up to the game, Australian pacer Pat Cummins spoke about serving up the short-pitched stuff to the famed Indian batting line-up, but that’s as predictable as MS Dhoni opting for more spinners to counter thethreat of the pace-loving Aussies.

Dhoni did, however, go against his norm on Thursday when he declared at the pre-match press conference that he would be playing five specialistbowlers. That means one of the two biggest guns of the batting line-up — Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh — will have to sit out.

“We most probably will play with five bowlers, but the combination will depend on conditions and the wicket, which will be a fresh one. Definitely it’s one of the toughest decisions I’ve taken so far, but we have to seewhat fits the combination the best,” said Dhoni.

The game will be the second of the day on the pitch, and it won’t be a stretch to imagine Dhoni going in with two seamers and all three specialistspinners in the squad – offies R Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh and leg-spinner Piyush Chawla.

That means a toss-up between the out-of-form Zaheer Khan and Lakshmipathy Balaji, unless the skipper sticks to the three pacers and two spinners combination that worked wonders against England on Sunday.

Irfan Pathan will be the key man, since he will have to live up to his ‘all-rounder’ tag and shoulder the responsibility of the main medium-pacer and the seventh batsman.

Australia already have that luxury in the form of Shane Watson, who has come up with man-of-the-match-winning efforts in both their group games.

Watson has played the role of the senior seamer to perfection, getting key wickets and complementing the young Cummins and Mitchell Starc with the new ball.

With the bat, he has been his usual destructive self, and David Warner has joined him in giving the team flying starts.

Michael Hussey’s presence at one-drop is reassuring, but if the Indians do make early inroads into their line-up, the Aussies might rue the lack ofexperience and time in the middle.

India have history stacked against them. Since lifting the inaugural trophy in 2007, they haven’t won a single Super Eights game, losing all six matches in the 2009 and 2010 tournaments in England and West Indies respectively.

But things look different this time around. The spinners are in good form, as are most of the batsmen, and the Premadasa wicket is expected to turn a bit, handing the advantage to the Men in Blue.

With Group 2 looking by far the tougher one to qualify from, given that all the teams finished unbeaten in the league stage, an early victory will give either team the upper hand and confidence for the rest of the games.

And the choices India make on the team selection front might turn out to be the biggest factor in the match.